Sail On
by wild wolf free17
Summary: Drabbles of various lengths and points of view. anthology
1. Apples and Gold

**_Each of these stands alone, has it's own rating and it's own warnings._**

* * *

**Title**: Apples and Gold 

**Disclaimer**: Not my characters. Just for fun.

**Warnings**: timeline—pre-CotBP

**Pairings**: implied Barbossa/Jack

**Rating**: PG

**Wordcount**: 200

**Point** **of** **view**: second

* * *

The ship knows you are not her master. The crew whisper when they think you cannot hear. The ocean is bleak without his dry comments.

Apples taste like ash and the sunrise is not beautiful.

You wonder why you mutinied. Gold does not glitter without him there.

* * *

The wind whispers with his voice and you snarl at the crew, ordering them to head for Tortuga. Surely, you can drown his memory there.

* * *

He's dead, gone, beyond you. His dark eyes glare at you at night because you bathe yourself with guilt. 

Greed is a sin. You've always known that, but never paid before the Aztec gold.

* * *

Apples taste like ash and you can't remember the feel of his lips. You can't feel the wind on your face or water dripping from between your fingers. 

The ship knows you are not her master. You wonder how long until she finally rebels and returns to the depths.

* * *

It had seemed like a good idea at the time. It always does. And now—the ocean stretches before you, the gold calls to you, and you've nearly forgotten his voice. 

The apple tastes like ash in your mouth and you throw it overboard, into the sea.


	2. Wings of Gold

**Title**: Wings of Gold

**Disclaimer**: Not my characters. Just for fun.

**Warnings**: AU

**Pairings**: implied Jack/Will

**Rating**: PG

**Wordcount**: 220

**Point** **of** **view**: third

* * *

Jack Sparrow. Legend. Myth. Immortal for moments and never invincible, no matter the stories.

Expelled from Hell. Tossed from Heaven. Loved by the sea. Hated by land.

In love with _The Black Pearl_. And a blacksmith-turned-pirate who could not love him back.

* * *

Jack Sparrow. Escaped by the skin of his teeth and the wits of a fox and the dogged determination of a manboy who didn't know how to stop. 

Jack Sparrow—an enigma and damnedly obvious at the same time.

A slave to the ocean. A slave to the _Pearl_. A slave to the one person that ever truly saw him and didn't even know. A slave to rough hands and bronzed skin and dark, dark eyes. A slave to gentle questions and harsh demands.

Jack Sparrow—thief and pirate and mortal.

Jack Sparrow. Free. Freedom. Safe haven for those who want an out, like the lad did.

* * *

Offer someone kindness and you either get slapped or kissed. Jack didn't know which he'd prefer. But the boy—the man—looked at him long and hard, then finally shrugged and chose.

* * *

Jack Sparrow. Legend. Myth. And by his side, the stories go, a silent man fought and bled and killed. But only ever in defense of his captain. 

Jack Sparrow. In love with the ocean and the _Pearl_ and a blacksmith-turned-pirate named Will.


	3. From Pond to Sea

**Title**: From Pond to Sea

**Disclaimer**: Not my characters. Just for fun.

**Warnings**: AU after CotBP

**Pairings**: Will/Elizabeth

**Rating**; PG

**Wordcount**: 300

**Point** **of** **view**: third

* * *

Will Turner trails his fingers through the pond, the quiet, gentle pond, and misses the roar of the ocean. The wind tickles his face, lightly touches his hair; in the breeze, he thinks he hears her voice.

But it is only a fantasy, he knows. Always a fantasy.

The sea, the rough, uncaring sea, claimed her. And the sea never returns what it takes.

-

"You are weary," the Governor says when he returns home. "You need to sleep, Will."

Will nods and responds, "I know, sir." He tries on a smile, but it doesn't fit. "I'll sleep tomorrow."

Always tomorrow, he knows, and yet tomorrow never comes.

-

Elizabeth died at twilight. It was fitting and beautiful and so gentle—holding his hand one minute, swearing she'd get better soon, that their child would arrive and everything would be good again, and the next… her eyes lost their light, her brittle smile shattered, and her fingers fell limp across his palm.

She was buried at sea, as she'd requested. He watched, numb to all feeling, as the waves took her.

Freedom, she'd called the sea. Freedom, she told him, like Jack named his _Pearl_ to be.

He cannot stand the sea.

-

He works as a blacksmith, twenty-hour days in the forge. He no longer truly lives, merely survives from one moment to the next.

His happiness, and any thought of it, died with her and their child, claimedby the sea.

-

Will Turner trails his fingers through the gentle water of the pond and misses the scent of a salt air, the sting of wind against his face, and the sound of her voice saying his name.

Almost, he curses Jack Sparrow. Almost. Because without the pirate, Elizabeth would never have been his—and he would never feel such pain.


	4. Victory

**Title**: Victory

**Disclaimer**: not my characters; just for fun.

**Warnings**: spoilers for _At World's End_

**Pairings**: Calypso/Davy; Will/Elizabeth

**Rating**: PG

**Wordcount**: 200

**Point** **of** **view**: third

* * *

She is glorious again, out of the mortal coil. She cradles her Davy in the ocean's hold, chanting him back to life. His heart is his again, yet still in her grasp—as it's always been, even locked away on land.

She is the sea, all its' power, all its' glory, never meant to be locked away, caged, stifled in a single body and governed by a single heartbeat. She is too immense, too beautiful for such confinement—but that mortal man wanted what she could not give, and took when she could not give it.

The human-girl Elizabeth Swann is different and yet the same. She will wait for William, wait as long as it takes. She is not a god, but instead a king—lord of the lordless. Ruler of the waves, yet not as truly as Calypso.

She owes those two mortal children, owes them a deep debt. So she waits until William's first visit to land and weaves a spell.

Calypso and Davy have their eternity at the bottom of the sea. She grants William and his pirate wife-king the same. Never to age, never to die, free to roam the waves forever—at world's end.


	5. Tapestry of Lies

**Title**: Tapestry of Lies

**Disclaimer**: not my characters; just for fun.

**Warnings**: AU for CotBP

**Pairings**: can't say

**Rating**: PG13

**Wordcount**: 360

**Point of view**: third

* * *

Of all his scars, it is his favorite.

His grandsons ask for stories from his glory days and he tells them of the Pirate Lord he defeated and how the triple-slash across his chest came to be. About the burns up and down his left arm and the jagged line all down his right. About the slash across his forehead, nearly hidden by his white hair.

His granddaughters ask for stories from his glory days and he speaks of the swordfights and the quick, deep cuts of the blades. He tells them of the brands on his calves and how one time he nearly lost his leg because he was too slow. They refuse to believe it—he is the best in their eyes.

His daughter comes for her two and his son returns for his three. The children will tell their parents of his adventures, but the adults stopped believing long ago. And soon, even the youngest will grow too old for such tales.

He is almost glad. The sea has already taken too much.

He traces the scar across his palm and his wife raises his hand to her mouth, kisses the mark. "Will you never forgive yourself?" she whispers. "You did all you could."

"No, Lizzie," he replies, pulling her close. "Every time I look at your son, I see his face." He shuts his eyes and listens to the roar of the ocean. "Every time I look at you, I see the life he should have had."

"Darling," she murmurs, "he would have forgiven you."

"I know, luv," he murmurs in return. "And that is why I cannot."

The scar on his palm reminds him of his triumph—and his failure. He defeated a curse—and lost something far more valuable than he knew at the time.

He slips into bed and she follows, resting her head over his heart.

The next time one of the children asks for a story, he'll tell them of the Blacksmith Prince, the Rogue, and the Lady who fought the Pirate King.

He falls asleep to the memory of a duel in a blacksmith shop playing in his mind.


	6. Beloved, That Lady

**Title: **Beloved, That Lady

**Disclaimer**: not my characters; just for fun.

**Warnings**: AU after DMC

**Pairings**: Jack/_Pearl_; Will/Elizabeth

**Rating**: PG

**Wordcount**: 455

**Point** **of** **view**: third

* * *

There was a time Jack Sparrow hated the sea. Few would believe it, but it's the truth. He recoiled from the sight and scent of the water, from the gulls screaming and the ocean roaring. He jeered at the men and women who lived on ships and clung to the land with a fervor that would shock all who've heard of the Captain.

But when he was fourteen, young Jack had to go on a ship. His mother and father died, leaving him in the care of an uncle who captained _Apollo's Curse_, a pirate ship.

For a year he constantly vomited and cursed and feared that Death had come for him. For a year he lived only a half-life—and then he fell into the sea.

Washed overboard in a storm that killed the entire crew, his uncle, and the ship. Floated on remains of the _Curse_ for days. Picked up by another ship and drawn from the water's embrace.

After that, the love affair began in earnest and he forgot he'd ever loathed his lady.

-

Time passes quickly out in open water, even as the days last forever. Jack inspired confidence in the early years; he did any work required on ships he sailed, no matter how belittling.

Swiftly he ascended the ranks till he had his own ship. _The Black Pearl_, she was called, and he left to imaginations how he got her. Some stories said he'd created her out of mists, others that he'd stolen her from the Devil. Some even went so far as to claim she'd been a fallen angel who loved him and changed forms to be with him.

Jack smirked whenever asked.

-

If he had known—ah, but he did, didn't he? The _Pearl_ arose from the depths, more gorgeous than any phoenix ever given wing, and he knew.

The Kraken consumed them together, Jack and his darling, and Will Turner watched with horrified eyes.

An eternity spent in the belly of the beast—Jack laughed, thinking of the legends set to spring from this.

-

Of course, as Jack had known he would, the whelp found a way to save him. Will always did. The fact that damned Barbossa helped only served to make Jack laugh even harder.

Davy defeated and the _Pearl_ sailing again, Jack decided he was done. Finished. Ready for a deep, true rest.

He gave the ship to Will and his bonny pirate lass; Gibbs swore he'd help them.

-

There was a time Jack Sparrow hated the sea.

Now, he smiled at Will, smirked at Elizabeth, nodded to Gibbs, and dove off the side of the _Pearl_.

With one last smile, Jack Sparrow slipped into the dark waters and did not look back.


	7. Beyond the Horizon

**Title**: Beyond the Horizon

**Disclaimer**: not my characters; just for fun.

**Warnings**: AU after CotBP

**Pairings**: Will/Elizabeth; Will/Jack

**Rating**: PG13

**Wordcount**: 710

**Point** **of** **view**: third

* * *

Will can barely recall his life before Elizabeth and Mr. Brown. He knows his mother died of cold and his father left one day to never return. He knows his father left him a necklace when he vanished, a gold coin on a chain.

For ten years he thought the sea swallowed it.

Will knows he's incredibly lucky; few orphans are looked after by governors. Few orphans are handed apprenticeships so quickly.

So what if Mr. Brown sometimes hits him? He shouldn't have made mistakes. So what if Mr. Brown sometimes uses a belt or heated sword? He's lucky to have a pallet to sleep on, a roof over his head, and food.

Will feels an affinity for the blade. He quickly learns everything Mr. Brown knows; by his fourteenth birthday(two years and nine months into the apprenticeship) he's already better than his master. He practices with the swords he makes, steadily improving his stamina, speed, and strength.

Elizabeth is the brightest spot of his life. She checks in on him, visits with him, tells him secrets and hopes. He responds in kind, except for Mr. Brown's treatment. He speaks of what he remembers of before, his daily trials, about the people of Port Royal.

Very easily, Elizabeth could be a spoiled child, a bratty girl. Her father caters to her every whim, giving her books and toys and clothes. Will provides a balance to that—instead of the servants and townsfolk being faceless underlings, Will shares with her their souls.

She falls in love first. They are fifteen and walking along the beach. Elizabeth speaks of the suitor who called, an older gentleman who wants heirs. He is rich, richer than her father; he would take her back to England and make her lady. Will lightly touches her arm and she turns to face him. He looks deep into her eyes and says softly, earnestly, "You can always run to me, Elizabeth. Always. No matter what."

A few months later, Governor Swann calls Will into his study during a visit with Elizabeth. He speaks of things like class, duty, and place.

Elizabeth becomes Miss Swann and Will only comes back to the house for blacksmith business.

By the time he is nineteen, Will is a master of the blade, the making and using of it. He has fully taken over the blacksmith post and the town knows it, even if the high society folk do not.

He and Elizabeth rarely speak anymore. He thinks he loves her, but deep inside he knows something is missing.

Will's first real test of sword-fighting comes from a pirate. Jack Sparrow. A rogue and cad and villain—

And it is the greatest fun he can remember, that duel with Jack, the duel of word and blade.

Will won. They both know it, always have. Jack cheated—in a real, fair fight Will will _always_ win.

After everything, after Barbossa and the curse and the near-hanging—as Will said, he knows his place.

On the sea, with salty air surrounding him, the smell of the ocean filling him, the roar of the endless horizon—freedom with the Pearl—freedom with Jack.

In Port Royal he has a woman he does not love and life he will never live happily. In Port Royal he has a master for three more years and a Commodore who hates him. In Port Royal he has nothing but empty promises and unfulfilled dreams.

Will doesn't remember much of his life before Elizabeth. And after her seems like a hazy dream because Jack is such a vibrant beacon he shines above it all.

Sometimes staring out into the waves, Will wonders how Elizabeth is. If she's happy. If she ever found a husband she could be content with. Norrington loved her, Will knows—Norrington was a good man.

"Stop thinkin' so hard, luv," Jack murmurs, leaning into his back. "You're scarin' the fish away, the silly buggers."

Will smiles. This is what he dreamed of, during those long nights with an aching body—the endless horizon, the scent of the ocean, a good ship beneath him, and someone who knew—understood—him.

It's all he ever wanted.

"Bring me that horizon," he whispers and Jack answers, "Always."


	8. Freedom

**Title**: Freedom

**Disclaimer**: not my characters; just for fun.

**Warnings**: spoilers for CotBP

**Pairings**: none

**Rating**: G  
**Wordcount**: 100

**Point** **of** **view**: third

* * *

Freedom, he called it. Freedom.

She's never known that. She has always been in a cage—gilded and pretty, with sapphires and diamonds and rubies, with servants and beauty and tutors—

Freedom. That's all she has ever wanted. An escape from cold politeness and propriety and what's expected of a well-bred 'lady.'

She read books on heroes and legends and gods and pirates. She avidly listened to stories of adventures on the high seas. She pretended she could sail through the waves like a pirate—escape her gorgeous and stifling cage.

Freedom, he called it. She wishes she knew it.


	9. Pirate

**Title: **Pirate

**Disclaimer**: not my characters; just for fun.

**Warnings**: AU after DMC

**Pairings**: none, really

**Rating**: PG13

**Wordcount**: 340

**Point of view**: third

* * *

_—I'm not sorry—this is the only way, don't you see?—I'm not sorry—_

_—Pirate— _

It's funny—the same man turned them both into pirates, and all for the love of each other. The Governor's daughter and the upright blacksmith—sullied, _ruined_ by the same man.

Captain Jack Sparrow.

Will stole a ship and consorted with known villains. He rescued a pirate from the hangman's noose. He fought against British soldiers to set Sparrow free.

Elizabeth held a gun on a Lord and then willingly joined a pirate crew. She chained a man to a doomed ship and left him to his fate.

_—Pirate— _

_—I'm not sorry— _

Of course, Elizabeth could not return to her gilded cage. And Will could not take up smithing at his forge as if nothing had happened.

They'd both sampled the salty taste of freedom and refused to pretend otherwise.

Because of Sparrow, they'd both fallen from the sky. Their love—fragile, beautiful, pure—did not survive the plummet, and they both came out scarred on the other side.

_—Pirate— _

_—This is the only way, don't you see?— _

Jack Sparrow walked out of the Kraken with a mischievous smile. His crew—what remained—welcomed him with backslaps and rum. Barbossa even graced him with a grin and bowed to the side.

Elizabeth stepped up and could not meet his eyes. "Lizzie," he said, "still a pirate, are we?"

She leaned in, tried to kiss him, but he held up a hand. "No, m'dear," he gently told her. "You've no place on any ship I captain."

"But it was the only way!" she protested weakly, as she'd always known it'd come to this. She loved the sea, so she'd not return to land, but she left his ship and did not look back.

Will remained with the crew and did not follow Elizabeth with his eyes.

Jack stepped in front of him and met his gaze straight on.

"Pirate," the Captain said.

"Aye," the blacksmith replied. "And I'm not sorry."

Jack Sparrow smiled

_—Pirate— _

_—I'm not sorry— _


	10. to cross the great waters

**Title**: to cross the great waters

**Fandom**: _Pirates of the Caribbean_, "Stargate: Atlantis", _Star Trek_ reboot

**Disclaimer**: not my characters

**Warnings**: spoilers for basic plots

**Pairings**: none stated

**Rating**: PG

**Wordcount**: 405

**Point** **of** **view**: third

**Notes**: I thought, _Wouldn't it be cool if Jack Sparrow, John Sheppard, and James Kirk were all related? _And lo, this fic was born.

* * *

Jack Sparrow was born in the middle of one of the Atlantic's most vicious squalls. No one heard his or his mother's cries over the roar of the wind; together, they were swept overboard, his mother barely keeping ahold of him, or either of them afloat. But she clung to a piece of driftwood from the wreckage and placed her child above the surface, and together they were pulled from the ocean, the only survivors of their crossing to the colonies in America.

Whenever he mentioned the circumstances of his birth, no one believed him. He liked it that way.

o0o

John Sheppard was born on a cross-continental flight, his mother going against both his father and her doctor's advice. She was a stubborn woman and wanted to be with her family, and the baby wasn't due for another month.

She went into labor at thirty-five thousand feet, without a doctor. Her husband was fifteen states behind her, her own mother still ten ahead. Davey sobbed next to her, terrified out of his mind, as she screamed in agony, begging God to give her a safe, healthy baby.

When people learned the circumstances of his birth, very few were ever surprised.

o0o

James Tiberius Kirk was born in space, during an unprovoked attack that cost hundreds of lives which shouldn't have ended. His mother wept in pain and despair as his father died moments after his birth. Only a few newborn heartbeats after his first breath, his father breathed his last.

They, and the rest of the shuttles, were rescued a few days later. He had barely cried, nourished by his mother's milk and formula. Mostly, he slept or stared at his mother. She had not stopped weeping.

Without understanding, he spent most of his life trying to return to the black.

o0o

In the branches of his family tree, Jack Sparrow had royalty and peasants, farmboys and priests, emperors and warlords and slaves. He was not the first captain, and he was not the last.

John Sheppard was not the first of his kin to take to the sky, to seek freedom beyond the confines of the dirt. He had street cleaners and warriors in his bloodline, queens and milkmaids.

James Tiberius Kirk had long sought for something, and with the _Enterprise_ he found it. He wondered sometimes about the heroes and villains that peopled his family's past, if they had ever found home like he did.


	11. masquerade

Title: masquerade

Disclaimer: not my characters

Warnings: none

Pairings: Will/Elizabeth

Rating: PG

Wordcount: 95

Point of view: third

Prompt: dressing up as a proper English lady now feels like wearing a costume

* * *

She has been(is still) a pirate, the king of pirates, bride to the captain of the Flying Dutchman. She has been to the otherside, fallen over the edge of the world.

Even before, she hated dressing fancy and going to balls. Such a charade. She has never been a proper lady, a fluffy no-brained creature only after a man.

Her father would be proud, she thinks, leading her son into the plantation house. Here she is, pirate king dressed as a lady, and she listens to the wind as it whispers a message from Will.


	12. homebound

**Title**: homebound

**Fandom**: _Star Trek_ reboot/_Pirates of the Caribbean_

**Disclaimer**: not my characters

**Warnings**: spoilers for movies

**Pairings**: Black Pearl/Jack

**Rating**: PG

**Wordcount**: 285

**Point** **of** **view**: third

**Prompt**: POTC, Black Pearl/author's choice, The Ship Who Searched (Anne Mccaffrey, Mercedes Lackey)

* * *

She is a ghost on the water, forgotten by all, even the one who challenged the sea itself. She is useless as the ages roll past, as men leave the water for the ground and then the ground for the stars.

She lingers, unable to pass on without closure, and how can a ship ever find that? Her brothers and sisters, though, manage it—oh, but none of them ever had a Jack.

She watches as Will returns to his woman, as they both leave life behind for whatever journey comes next. She watches their children, their children's children, and finally there are too many to watch.

She searches for Jack, her beloved, the one man who ever looked at her and saw her soul.

And then, when she is so weary she no longer looks, she feels him. Wherever he's been for hundreds of human years, he's back.

When she looks, she cannot see him. But she knows he is there, so she watches and then—

With a sigh, the _Black Pearl_ sees a squalling human infant in the arms of a sad-eyed woman. "Jimmy," the woman whispers. "Please, baby. Shh, Jimmy."

She is a ghost on the water, obsolete and forgotten. Useless to her beloved. She cannot remain in this form any longer.

Human years pass, two decades and change, and there is a way to join him again, her quicksilver Jack. Another ship, called the iEnterprise/i. A creature of electricity and metal, it has no soul. So few ships do anymore.

And so she jumps across water and land, alive again, knowing her Jack will find her.

(When his newfound Will smuggles him aboard, _Enterprise_ shivers in joy and whispers to her Jack, _Welcome, beloved_.


	13. seachild

**Title**: seachild

**Disclaimer**: not my characters

**Warnings**: spoilers for AWE

**Pairings**: Will/Elizabeth

**Rating**: PGish

**Wordcount**: 50

**Point** **of** **view**: third

**Prompt**: Will/Elizabeth, blacksmith's hands

* * *

His hands are rough on her skin, calloused and strong. Not a nobleman's hands, not soft, but sometimes gentle, when she asks for it.

Otherwise, out on the wild sea as Pirate King and _Dutchman_'s captain, they make good on their titles, as untamed as the waters they ride.


	14. bring me that horizon

**Title**: bring me that horizon

**Disclaimer**: not my characters

**Warnings**: none

**Pairings**: none

**Rating**: PG

**Wordcount**:

**Point** **of** **view**: third

**Prompt**: Will & Jack, One's a myth, one's a legend.

* * *

There is tell of a captain, sailing the waters since time began, older than language and brother of time, ferrying souls to the other side of the ocean. If you see him, they say, you are his—he is judge of where you go, or if you stay with him, part of his crew, until your contract is up.

No, no, others say, only those who die on the water are his, only those who return to the waves, package and parcel of the sea, of the depths and the salt.

And there is another mentioned in whispers, when the ale and rum are plenty, laughter and drunken songs filling the night, a captain who made a deal with the brother of time, who demanded a ship nigh uncatchable and fought the monster of the deep, who was consumed by the ocean and came out the other side, madder than a hatter—though this was before that story, you understand—and still so witty he defeated Death to become immortal.

No, no, others say, you're telling this wrong, the captains knew each other before all this happened, they were brothers themselves, mortal and frail, and only together could they have done anything.

And don't forget the Pirate King, another chimes in, she played a part, too, she wrangled Death into submission and stared extinction in the eye, and she—

Hush, hush, pass the rum and listen, the story goes like this.

There are two captains and a king, and they sail the waters, and though they were mortal once, they aren't anymore, and they are myth and they are legend, and wherever you smell salt air or hear the roaring ocean, there they are.


	15. spirit of the sea

**Title**: spirit of the sea

**Disclaimer**: not my characters

**Warnings**: really weird; future!fic

**Pairings**: Jack/Black Pearl, Calypso/Jack

**Rating**: PG

**Wordcount**: 150

**Point of view**: third

**Prompt**: Pirates of the Caribbean, author's choice, S/he missed the waves

* * *

She misses the waves, and salt air, and the creatures that swam around her, beneath her, through her when she finally sank deep and let herself go.

_go where? nowhere. still there, on the bottom of the sea, waiting_

ever ever waiting

clever Jack will come back

She was beloved by he who eventually became the god of trickery, Coyote's cousin and Anansi's nephew, consort to Calypso, child and lover of the sea.

And he loves her more than the goddess, and she rests, waiting, waiting

_clever Jack come back_

And yes, finally, the summons, the call, and her rotting wood stays in the ocean, but she, her spirit and her soul, brought to life by deals and will, she rises

_up_

out

through

beyond

There are new legends now, a god of the black, ancient and forever young, with his ship with a soul named Pearl.


End file.
